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Welfare reform bill: universal credit provisions

Bill No 154 of Session 2010-11. RESEARCH PAPER 11/24 published 7 March 2011. The Welfare Reform Bill provides for the introduction of a “Universal Credit” to replace a range of existing means-tested benefits and tax credits for people of working age, starting from 2013. The Bill follows the November 2010 White Paper, Universal Credit: welfare that works, which set out the Government’s proposals for reforming welfare to improve work incentives, simplify the benefits system and tackle administrative complexity.

Funding adult social care over the next decade: who cares?

Council cut backs could see the loss of 81,000 care home beds over the next 10 years. The anticipated increase in the UK’s ageing population would, at the same time, increase demand by 18,000 in the same period. Therefore, almost 100,000 older people could be unable to access the care home places they need and, because of their frailty, many would have to be admitted to hospital, creating a bed blocking crisis for the NHS.
This report makes a number of recommendations for central and local government action.

Early intervention, using the CAF process, and its cost effectiveness: findings from LARC3

The LARC3 research findings provide important "real time‟ evidence about the cost effectiveness of early intervention. At a time when there is increasing interest in promoting sector-led models of service improvement, the LARC model, in which local authorities and national agencies undertake collaborative research, has potential as one of the "improvement tools‟ available to local authorities and government.

Parents at the centre

Report undertaken to understand why some parents who are entitled to use early years services don’t normally do so. More specifically, the research seeks to understand how parents access information that shapes their decision-making about early years provision, and how service providers can better engage with and support parents to meet their families’ needs. On the basis of the findings, the case is made for a number of key policy changes, to ensure that early years provision enables children from low-income families to break out of the inter-generational cycle of disadvantage.

Intensive family support: the evidence

Paper that brings together the Action for Children evidence base on intensive family support services. It is collated under a number of themes:

- keeping children safe
- keeping young people safety at home/out of care
- keeping children out of custody
- keeping children healthy
- improving children's relationships
- savings to the state and communities
- improving educational attainment
- reducing anti-social behaviour
- housing stability

'Don't make assumptions': children's and young people's views of the child protection system and messages for change

Research commissioned by the Office of the Children’s Commissioner and carried out by a team from the University of East Anglia, it documents children and young people’s views of the child protection system and considers how these views might contribute to improving responses to abuse and neglect.

It aimed to gather the views of children and young people living with their parents, who all had a child protection plan in place. The research comes during a period when the child protection system in England is being reviewed.